Bernd Berauer

University of Hohenheim · Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...

Plant community biomass production is co‐dependent on climatic and edaphic factors that are often covarying and non‐independent. Disentangling how these factors act in isolation is challenging, especially along large climatic gradients that can mask soil effects. As anthropogenic pressure increasingly alters local climate and soil resource supply u...

Warming due to climate change is generally expected to lengthen the growing season in areas of seasonal climate and to advance plant phenology, particularly the onset of leafing and flowering. However, a reduction in aboveground biomass production and reproductive output may occur when warming is accompanied by drought that crosses critical water d...

Semi-natural, agriculturally used grasslands provide important ecologic and economic services, such as feed supply. In mountain regions, pastures are the dominant agricultural system and face more severe climate change impacts than lowlands. Climate change threatens ecosystem functions, such as aboveground net primary production [ANPP] and its nutr...

Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...

Zusammenfassung Die in den letzten Jahrzehnten beobachtete Aufgabe der Almbewirtschaftung ist der größte Landnutzungswandel im Alpenraum und führt zu einem Verlust von Jahrhunderte bis Jahrtausende alter Kulturlandschaft mit ihren Bodenfunktionen, ihrer Artenvielfalt und ihrer touristischen Attraktivität. Die 1955 aufgelassene Brunnenkopfalm im Amm...

Alpine and prealpine grasslands provide various ecosystem services and are hotspots for the storage of soil organic C (SOC) in Central Europe. Yet, information about aggregate-related SOC storage and its controlling factors in alpine and prealpine grassland soils is limited. In this study, the SOC distribution according to the aggregate size classe...

Climate change is altering ecosystems and ecosystem services all over the globe. The severity of climate change, especially warming, increases with latitude and altitude , leaving high-elevation and latitude ecosystems especially prone to impacts of climate change. Consequently, grasslands of the northern hemisphere and mountain regions of the worl...

Warming due to climate change is generally expected to lengthen the growing season in areas of seasonal climate and to advance plant phenology, particularly the onset of leafing and flowering. However, a reduction in aboveground biomass production and reproductive output may occur when warming is accompanied by drought that crosses critical water d...

Plant community biomass production is co-dependent on climatic and edaphic factors that are often covarying and non-independent. Disentangling how these factors act in isolation is challenging, especially along large climatic gradients that can mask soil effects. As anthropogenic pressure increasingly alters local climate and soil resource supply u...

Semi-natural, agriculturally used grasslands provide important ecologic and economic services, such as feed supply. In mountain regions, pastures are the dominant agricultural system and face more severe climate change impacts than lowlands. Climate change threatens ecosystem functions, such as aboveground net primary production ANPP and its nutrie...

AimsConsequences of climate change and land use intensification on the nitrogen (N) cycle of organic-matter rich grassland soils in the alpine region remain poorly understood. We aimed to identify fates of fertilizer N and to determine the overall N balance of an organic-matter rich grassland in the European alpine region as influenced by intensifi...

Biotic and abiotic controls on carbon storage in aggregates in calcareous alpine and prealpine grassland soils

Higher biodiversity can stabilize the productivity and functioning of grassland communities when subjected to extreme climatic events. The positive biodiversity‐stability relationship emerges via increased resistance and/or recovery to these events. However, invader presence might disrupt this diversity‐stability relationship by altering biotic int...

With a growing human population facing multiple global change drivers (i.e. climate change and land management change), the future of food security is of major importance. Sustainable agriculture is therefore key to ensure food supply and food security under future climatic conditions. Forage provision (composed of forage quantity and forage qualit...

Alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in Bavaria provide important ecosystem services and are hotspots for soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. However, information on the underlying factors that control SOC stabilization via soil aggregation is limited. In three grassland soils with the same parent material but at different elevation (Fendt: 600 m.a...

1. Climate change is a world-wide threat to biodiversity and ecosystem structure, functioning and services. To understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms, and to predict the consequences for nature and people, we urgently need better understanding of the direction and magnitude of climate change impacts across the soil–plant–atmosphere contin...

Climate change is a worldwide threat to biodiversity and ecosystem structure, functioning, and services. To understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms, and to predict the consequences for nature and people, we urgently need better understanding of the direction and magnitude of climate‐change impacts across the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum...

International Mountain Conference (2019, Innsbruck), I tried out a more provoking and less "wall-of-text" approach.

High-elevation ecosystems will experience increasing periods of above-average warmth and altered precipitation changes because of climate change. This causes uncertainties for community properties such as productivity and biodiversity. Increasing temperature may increase productivity by increasing growing season length and metabolic rate or decreas...

Handbook for standardized methods in terrestrial global change experiments

Flowering phenology and climate change. Flowering phenology of translocated communities. Experimental climate modification by downslope translocation. This project was developed within the framework of the BonaRes project SUSALPS (Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate).

Changes in productivity and community dynamics of subalpine grasslands after one year of downslope transplantation - examine possible mechanisms underneath the existing patterns.

This poster was presented at this years ”Ecology Across Borders”-Conference in Ghent (11-14 December 2017). This conference was a joined conference of BES, GfÖ, NECOV and EEF

Changes in ANPP and community composition (regarding Functional Groups) after one year of translocating intact plant-soil units in the alps. Chaning patterns by including lowest altitude site/strongest manipulated climate change.

While world records of tree heights were set by American, Australian and Asian tree species, Africa seemed to play no role here. In our study we show that Entandrophragma excelsum (Meliaceae) found in a remote valley at Kilimanjaro has to be included in the list of the world’s superlative trees. Estimating tree age from growth rates monitored by hi...

”Base-Line” ANPP and community composition of the SUSALPS-Project. Coupled with the novel ”Bayreuth Phytometer”-Approach